Hard Deck Bar Bags
Description: You can't go to the Hard Deck, the bar featured in "Top Gun: Maverick," in real life because it doesn't actually exist. The good news is that there's a place both exactly like it and even better at the same time. While former naval aviator Capt. Brian Ferguson was working as a technical adviser for the production of "Top Gun: Maverick," he decided to take the film's director and producers to a real Navy hangout and explain the camaraderie behind sharing a drink and sea stories with other pilots.
Description: According to David F. Brown’s book Tomcat Alley: A Photographic Roll Call of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, 160694 was assigned to VF-51 during the making of the movie and received full Top Gun movie markings. The aircraft featured the fictious VF-1 badge, which was actually the insignia for VAW-110, an E-2C Hawkeye squadron based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar. During the movie Top Gun, this Tomcat displayed Lt. Mitchell’s name and callsign plus that of his new RIO, Ltjg. Sam “Merlin” Wells. It was also equipped as a camera ship and shot many of the dramatic air-to-air ACM footage. This Tomcat was stricken on Sep. 26, 1994.
